The Hill Center Hike

Like any freshman, I spent a couple days before class began trying to figure out where my classes were. Stevenson Center, check. Wilson Hall, check. Hill center…wtf? Where in the world is the Hill Center? Not to be late for my classes the first week, I started asking around. I asked my VUceptor, no luck. I asked my RA, no luck. Finally, I decided to look it up on the Vanderbilt building list. Luckily, I found it, but it was on the absolute other side of Peabody! Of course this was a little intimidating and I wondered why we would have to have class all the way over there.

Thursday rolled around and after spending 35 minutes wandering around asking various people, I found it. And what a treat it was to find the classroom. This wasn’t your typical classroom with small desks attached to chairs and a chalk board covering two walls. No, this was a conference room with a projector, big comfy rollie chairs, complimentary mints, a big screen TV, a SmartBoard, and cords running everywhere on the table. My first thought was “this is the most elite gaming facility ever, too bad we won’t be using it for that.” I was wrong.

The technology in the classroom has been very beneficial. Whenever there is something important to see on someone’s computer, we just hook it up to the projector and everyone has a clear view of it. The material you want to see isn’t online, but in a book instead? No problem just stick it on the ELMO and have it projected onto the SmartBoard. Want to draw something like an illustration of Plato’s Cave (nice work Jeff)? Pick up the SmartBoard markers and draw away. However, in a way this technology has spoiled me. I now find it difficult to go back to archaic methods of passing books around to see pictures or crowding around a small computer screen to see something.

Communication in this class has also been assited by technology. Everything we need to know about the class can be found on the syllabus located on the blog. Any important events are located on Facebook with an event invite. Everything else is e-mailed or on OAK with a specific description. These conveniences make it hard to write down assignments as a teacher dictates them to me.

All in all, the technology in our classroom has been beneficial to the learning experience, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I guess it makes it worth the 20 minutes Hill Center Hike. -Chris “This walk takes forever” Park